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The media spotlight may have shifted from Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality in the Free State – the QwaQwa area in particular – but the water crisis continues. Lives continue to be at risk and very little, if anything, has changed in the quality of life of the people of QwaQwa since the apparent government intervention.
The water problem in QwaQwa is not new. It has been persistent for more than 10 years.
This is not something I read from some document. It is a lived experience of residents who have had to grow up, raise children, work and find ways to survive under these conditions.
Chapter two of the Constitution states that: “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water”.
. Everyone has a right of access to basic water supply and sanitation services;
. Every water services institution must take steps to realise these rights; and
. Every municipality must plan in its water services development plan to realise these rights.
In accordance with these, South Africa is a signatory to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (1981); the African Charter on the Rights and the Welfare of the Child (1990); the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Protocol of San Salvador) (1988) and; the Arab Charter on Human Rights (2008).
How then does a government, that on paper has recognised the importance of the delivery of human rights, ignore the cries of its citizens to this extent?
How is it reasonable that a government can be so arrogant as to turn a blind eye to the delivery of a basic need that it claims to prioritise?
According to a report by the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs back in 2016, ageing water infrastructure was identified as the root of the crisis.
Does it then make sense to identify a problem at the local level and just shelve it till the consequences dictate that lives become lost?
Maluti-a-Phofung has been a dysfunctional municipality for a while. The evidence is that the municipality has long been under administration.
In an effort to get the attention of the authorities, community members have staged many protests and shutdowns but nothing has changed.
I speak as a young academic who teaches and does research in the social policy and community development space. It is one thing to stand in front of a class in a lecture hall and speak about the role and significance of local government in service delivery.
Read: Eight-year-old’s drowning sparks water riot in thirsty Free State
It is another for them to have, probably, the worst experience of the opposite of what you teach.
The Free State is a stronghold of the governing party. Would it then not follow that a responsible and responsive government would be akin to listen and intervene on the plight of those who put them there? All the people are asking for is the delivery of a basic human right. A human right the country recognises in both national and international legislation and treaties. No South African, rich or poor, deserves to live like this.
The current coronavirus epidemic and the cholera outbreaks (in the late 90s and early 2000s) provide great lessons with regard to the importance of clean, healthy water and good hygiene practices.
We can no longer continue to gamble with the lives of the poor. The people of QwaQwa need urgent intervention!
- Gcina Mtengwane is a lecturer in the community development programme at the University of the Free State, QwaQwa Campus. He writes in his personal capacity.
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